Oregon has some of the broadest free expression laws in the United States, but a bill in the Oregon Legislature that is following the lead from Washington is seeking to protect those rights for high school and college journalists.
House Bill 3279 makes high school and college journalists responsible for a school-sponsored publication’s content while protecting them from administrative censorship. The bill, introduced by Rep. Larry Galizio, D-Tigard, is modeled on the similar House Bill 1307 that passed on March 13 in the Washington House.
Brian Schraum, a junior at Washington State University, said he pushed for the Washington bill after studying the 2005 Hosty v. Carter decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said college officials in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana could censor student publications.
The Hosty decision was a shock because courts had provided consistent legal protection to college media for the last four decades, said Mike Hiestand, a legal consultant for the Student Press Law Center who helped draft the Washington bill. He said the Hosty decision sets a precedent for administration censorship of college media in other states by also referencing the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision, which allows school officials to censor high school media.
“All of a sudden we have school officials claiming across the country that because of this decision, they have more authority over their school-sponsored publications,” Hiestand said.
Schraum, a reporter with The Daily Evergreen, Washington State’s school newspaper, said he wanted to be proactive and create a policy that protects student publications.
“I’ve never had a censorship issue, but I think it’s only a matter of time,” Schraum said. “If we got this bill in, then I think we’ll be prepared for issues in the future.”
Both bills would protect high school and college media under one law. Only six states have laws that protect high school students from censorship, while California has a separate law that protects college students, according to the Student Press Law Center.
Hiestand said both bills provide protection to student media regardless of the Hosty and Hazelwood decisions.
“All of these laws are really just an attempt to restore a more meaningful balance to the legal protections available to student journalists,” Hiestand said. “Right now at the high school level, that balance is non-existent. If school officials want to censor student publications and if they are creative enough, they can probably get away with it.”
High school administration groups were the major opponents of the Washington bill, while journalism educators supported it, Hiestand said.
In the Washington House, Democrats overwhelmingly voted to pass it while Republicans opposed it. Schraum said he wasn’t sure why it became such a partisan issue because it applies to everyone.
The Oregon bill is sponsored by 12 House Democrats. House Republicans spokesman Nick Smith said he was unfamiliar with the bill but that he was not aware of any opposition to it.
The Oregon bill has not yet been assigned to a committee, while the Washington bill will move on to the state senate. Schraum said students overwhelmingly supported the bill and that he will continue organizing support for it in the senate.
“If it inspires other states to do this, that’s all I’m hoping for,” Schraum said.
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